The present invention relates to a product container for a fluidized bed installation and a fluidized bed installation, which comprises the product container.
Fluidized bed installations are frequently used in the chemical process technology and in particular during the production of pharmaceutical products in order, for example, to further process a starting material in the form of a bulk material. The further processing can, for example, consist of a thermal and/or material based treatment.
To this end, a fluidized bed installation has a product container provided in a lower region and a process container arranged above said product container. During operation, these are connected to one another to form a continuous fluidized bed container. A distributor bottom is provided in the lower region of the product container. The distributor bottom has openings or apertures, by means of which a gas stream can be introduced from below into the overlying chamber. The fluidized bed is formed by means of the interaction between the gas which was introduced and the components of the bulk material, wherein the fluidized bed can assume a liquid-like state.
The problem with such fluidized bed installations is that product containers and process containers are configured to a certain product quantity. That means that the installation is fixedly configured depending on the product quantity to be achieved. In order to increase the flexibility of the installation, differently sized product containers can alternatively be kept available. This has an increased investment volume for the fluidized bed installation and increased operating costs as a result.